In the Blogosphere, issues tend to come and go. People tend to react to something rather quickly and move on.
Now I am a little late on commenting on the whole New Yorker cartoon with Barak Obama in somekind of Muslim-type dress, giving a fist bump to his wife Michelle who is dressed up as a modern-day Angela Davis, with a flag burning in the fireplace and a picture of Osama bin Laden. We all know how the resulting debate, so I won’t bore you with that- I just want to share my view.
I know that the New Yorker has said that they were trying to make fun at the far right that fears that Mr. Obama is really all of these things. I know that some have wondered if the Senator can take a joke.
My own take was that this was a take on satire that fell short- very short- and does nothing to combat some of the lies going swirling around Obama. I think that the New Yorker has also failed to forget the whole racial component of this race which makes humor something that becomes rather tricky.
We are at a pivotal moment in American history where it looks like this nation will have it’s first non-white President. Having black presidents was the stuff of movies and television, not real life, but it looks like that will happen.
That is an achievement for a nation that has gone through a long drawn out history of how it treated a portion of the population – African Americans. If Mr. Obama does win in November, we will have come a long way as a nation in dealing with our racial past.
That said, even though we are this important time in the life of this nation, we still have demons to deal with. African Americans are still seen as “the other” in some circles- not fully American. I think that is why we keep hearing things like Obama went to a madrasa when he was in Indonesia or that he is not really a Christian, but a Muslim (as if there aren’t American Muslims). Like it or not, there are some that don’t see Obama as a “true” American.
The problem with the cartoon was that it was a poorly executed attempt at satire. There was nothing that said “this is a piece of satire at those right wing boobs that think Obama is a radical Muslim.” If it had shown the pic as a “mind bubble” of an elephant (the GOP symbol) to indicate this. The New Yorker didn’t do that. It was trying to be cleaver, and instead it just caused controversy.
I’m not saying that the New Yorker shouldn’t have issued the cartoon. I just think they should have been smarter about it and I also think those who shurg their shoulders need to understand why some are bothered by the attempt at humor.